New Canaan’s health director said Thursday that state officials “dropped a bombshell” this week regarding funding for a nurse whose responsibilities include administering vaccine.
Hired in November through an Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity or “ELC” grant, the public health nurse has helped with COVID-19 virus testing, contact tracing and vaccinations amid the pandemic, and is to work on program expansions such as in telehealth, Health Director Jenn Eielson told members of the Health & Human Services Commission during a regular meeting.
“Obviously, I cannot lose my public health nurse—there’s going to have to be a solution to that,” she said during the meeting, held via videoconference.
“With the potential of another wave coming in the fall with the Delta variant—because even though we have very high vaccination rates, we still have the unvaccinated, the under-12 group that can’t get vaccinated yet,” Eielson added. “And there’s no timetable on that until ‘some time in the fall,’ is all we kept hearing for the under-12.”
The comments come as town officials decide how to spend $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that’s been allocated to New Canaan. One specific category that the funds may be applied to is “public health expenditures” and bolstering local public health response, officials have said. The town doesn’t have to spend the funds until 2024. Though Selectman Nick Williams is urging New Canaan to use the funds to restore the General Fund following revenues lost due to the pandemic, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan has said “there is a sense” that the public money should go toward private businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Eielson said that she has submitted financial and other reports to the state over two separate budget periods. The most recent grant application had been approved following several revisions “but then [Wednesday] the state called and the state kind of dropped a bombshell that they’re not really sure where they stand with budget period two of the ELC grant,” she said.
“So I’m not really sure how I’m going to pay for my public health nurse going forward,” Eielson said. “So needless to say, I didn’t sleep well last night. So hopefully, the town can do something if I have to go back before the Board of Finance or what. But the state will let us know in the next two weeks.”
Commissioner Alicia Meyer asked what is the per-quarter cost of the public health nurse.
“And if the state decides not to fund it, how can we best advocate to get the funding?” Meyer said.
Eielson said the funds “guaranteed” by the state were for $51,215.
“So you’re not talking millions of dollars here, but going back through the process and hoping the town agrees with me that I need it would be crucial,” she said. “It’s not something I wanted to deal with, I am hoping the state just gives me the money like they’re supposed to. They’ve received hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government. It’s supposed to go to public health. It’s doesn’t seem to be making it to public health, though.”
Commissioner Tom Ferguson asked when the threat of running out of funding for the public health nurse position will become a problem where “we have to take action one way or the other if we want to keep the nurse.”
Eielson said it’s already an issue “because it started at the end of May.”
“I still have money left over from budget period one, luckily, so she is still being funded. I don’t know how much longer I can keep her without—I don’t know if the COVID accounts are still open after July 1, if I can still just put it under COVID? I have no idea. That is something maybe the Board of Finance or someone can clarify on how this works.”
Commissioner Jim Lisher said the state currently is running a budget surplus, “So I can’t understand why they would be carving off stuff like that that is important.”
Eielson said that towns such as New Canaan that have a population of less than 50,000 do not receive any per-capita funding for public health departments.
“It is just despicable to me why local public health is continually not funded properly at the federal and state levels,” she said.
Could someone please explain what First Selectman Moynihan means by saying “there is a sense” the funds should go to “private business…..?” How would this be allocated? I can understand the “non-profit” part of his statement. Our Public Health Nurse, and other non-profit groups that help the Town take care of residents, is more of a necessity.